How McCabe Came

McCabe, with his pops at just over a week old
McCabe's pregnancy was our trickiest yet. At 27 weeks we had our first early labor scare and I had to start taking things really easy. However, at 34 weeks I started cramping up more and more and had to start bedrest. Boo. Every day we would pray that he would stay in longer for his sake. Thanks to our Relief Society, James, and my Mom (who came and helped us for a month) we were able to keep him in longer than either of his older brothers! He came just one day shy of 39 weeks! His due date was Christmas, but as he was going to be a c-section, he was scheduled for the 20th early on in our pregnancy. However, with my history, our doctor had no expectation of us getting near that date and we all planned for a Thanksgiving baby instead. Miraculously, McCabe surprised us by staying in! Bedrest works. For the last so many check-ups, my doctor would have me come in without eating in case we would have to go straight to surgery right then and there. However, each time our little guy and I would be doing surprisingly well and he would let us go a little bit longer.

The week before our scheduled c-section, my blood pressure had climbed high enough that Dr. Noorda told us that we should have the c-section no later than that Friday. We agreed and the surgery was scheduled for Noon on the 17th. I was pretty bummed by the whole thing because that would be in the very middle of James' last day of finals and would make it very stressful for him. Plus, I was grouchy that I would have to spend the whole morning without a snack!

Thankfully, McCabe must have been on the same page because early that morning around 4am my water broke. Hot dog! That meant the the c-sections scheduled before ours got the boot and we Siegs got to sail on to the first surgery slot of the day! Even better, my water broke late enough in the morning to get a whole new group of fresh nurses and doctors, and made it so that my doctor could perform the surgery instead of the on-call doctor that I had never met.

The spinal and surgery went ahead with no hitches and I was so grateful. Our little guy came out healthy and strong and surprisingly small at 7:39am. His size was probably a mixture of my midget genes and a blessing from Heavenly Father. When they performed the surgery, they found that my uterus was paper thin and that they could actually see McCabe clearly even before they made any cut. My doctor said that if I even had gone two more hours I would have probably ruptured, putting both of us at high risk. I am so thankful for all of the prayers on our behalf that made it possible for us to both be healthy and safe.

We like our boys to have names that mean something special to me and James and so we named him McCabe after James' middle name. We gave him the middle name of Porter after my friend Mehgan Porter and her whole family who I adore. While McCabe and I were in surgery in Utah, Mehgan was also being operated on in California to prepare for her cancer treatment. Even though I dreading the spinal and having to be awake during surgery, I kept thinking of my good friend and was able to be stronger because of her example of courage.

Now our little guy is a week and a half and is growing more and more alert each day. We couldn't be more pleased with his little budding personality and feel like the luckiest of all to have three wonderful stinkbugs to keep busy with. Thanks to the timing of McCabe's birth and my mom's help with our other boys, James was able to finish off his first semester in his masters program with a 4.0! We are all so proud of our poppy.